This exibition, which opened the 27 May and remains visible at Palazzo Pitti until 11 September, is all the result of cultural exchanges on the occasion of celebrations Italy-Russia 2011. Celebrations organized by the Ministry of National Heritage and Culture and the Ministry of Foreign offairs together with the corrisponding Russian istitutions.
At the press conference was attended by the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation and the general director of the Moscow Kremlin Museum, Elena Gagarina, very important character for Russian Culture. The more than 100 works in show have a remarkable growth and formation of one of the most important treasures of Europe: the Kremlin Armeria, the richest collection of the oldest Russian museum that collects the royal treasures objects of daily use and the court ceremonial of the biggest names associated with Zar. The Armeria was the “room of treasures”, full of precious objects of different ages and different origins. This objects were bought for the royal house or a gift arriving from foreign countries. This, Italy-Russia exchange is not new, already in 1603 Ferdinando I De’Medici commissioned a merchant from Livorno the task of going to Moscow to view the mission with a mutual free market in Russia and Tuscany. With this expedition in Moscow, Ferdinando I ordered three precious vases of rock crystal and agate of the Medici collection, with a purpose to show the vases “to the Emperor de’ Moscovites”. Still today, these vases are part of Treasury of the Kremlin.
